This invention relates generally to systems for storing digital information, and, more particularly, to video disc systems for storing digital information in a pulse-length modulation format.
Video disc systems are becoming widely used for storing digital information with a high recording efficiency. The information is ordinarily recorded on the disc as a succession of spaced marks arranged in a plurality of substantially circular and concentric recording tracks, for example, a spiral pattern. One particularly efficient system has recorded the digital information in a pulse-length modulation format, in which each of the successive spaced marks has a discretely-variable length representative of a separate, multi-bit code block. The spacing between successive marks, or alternatively the spacing between the beginning edges of successive marks, is ordinarily maintained constant.
The video disc can include a glass substrate, with a thin, metallic recording layer overlaying it, and apparatus for recording the digital information on the disc ordinarily focuses a writing beam of light onto the disc, as the disc is rotated at a uniform rate, with the intensity of the beam being modulated in accordance with the digital information to be recorded. When the intensity exceeds a predetermined threshold, a non-reflective pit or mark is formed in the recording layer, whereas when the intensity does not exceed the threshold, the recording layer is not affected. Thus, the lengths of the successive, spaced marks correspond to the time duration the intensity of the focused beam exceeds this threshold.
The recorded digital information is recovered from replicas of the recorded video disc by scanning it with a reading beam of light having a uniform intensity, to produce a reflected beam having an intensity modulated by the recorded pattern of spaced marks. The length of time the intensity of the reflected beam exceeds a predetermined level is then measured to determine the length of the corresponding mark and thus the particular binary code block it represents.
Although this prior pulse-length modulation technique has proven effective in recording digital information with a relatively high recording efficiency, there is still a need for a system for recording digital information with an even higher efficiency. The present invention fulfills this need.